Campaign to encourage Edmontonians to replace front lawns with a garden

Replacing a flat and grassy lawn with a garden filled with native plants. That’s what ‘Waste Free Edmonton’ is trying to do in a new campaign to encourage alternative front yards, they say could help the environment.

Sean Stepchuk, the co-founder of Waste Free Edmonton, started the process of replacing his traditional grass lawn in 2020.

“Traditional lawn care practices involve a lot of mowing, a lot of leaf blowing; those practices create a lot of carbon emissions,” explained Stepchuk.

Stepchuk now has plants native to Edmonton filling his front yard and wants others to join, through the ‘Beyond the Lawn’ campaign.

He says his yard now requires less water.

“They’re used to our climate, they’re used to our winters. And so having native plants is going to be able, in the long run save you a lot of time, water, and money and be better for the environment,” he explained.

Dorene Bateman with the Dor’s Garden Shop says native plants such as poppies and yarrow look good and can help the pollinators.

“They’ll take what they get from the rain and just really low maintenance,” said Bateman. “You’re going to get a lot more activity in your garden, and it’s really important for the bees. Our bees are not becoming extinct, but we need our native bees and support our gardens and the whole ecosystem.”

The City of Edmonton encourages purposefully planned natural yards, but stresses it’s more work than just not mowing and letting nature take its course. Bylaws do not allow for grass on private property longer than 10 centimeters.

“What we really want people to do is to think, what could I be doing besides just having that patch of lawn?” said Stepchuk

Stepchuck says you don’t need to completely revamp your lawn in one summer, but can start small by adding a small naturalized plant bed.